--一项由瑞典Lund University的研究人员进行的研究显示，一种以前主要用于治疗癌症的药物Zebularine对糖尿病和一些自身免疫异常也有治疗效果。在动物实验中，研究人员将胰岛细胞转移到患有糖尿病的小鼠体内并用Zebularine处理后，小鼠的寿命明显延长。这同时也表明subdue能够抑制机体免疫系统进而可能对自身免疫疾病有一定作用。

详细英文报道：

A drug that previously had been used to treat cancer may have a new use in patients with diabetes and autoimmune disorders. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden believe that Zebularine, once used to treat tumors, could help prevent rejection of transplanted tissue.

In animal studies, researchers transplanted the islets of Langerhans--insulin-producing cell groups in the pancreas--from a group of healthy rats into another group of rats with diabetes. Researchers divided the diabetic rats into two groups, a control group and a group that was treated with Zebularine. Investigators treated the second group with the tumor drug for two weeks and observed that the rats lived significantly longer than the untreated rats. The findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE.

The scientists hope their work can lead to new treatments for both transplant patients and people with autoimmune diseases.

"It turned out that Zebularine has the ability to subdue the reaction of the body's immune system. This could be important in situations where tissue or organs are transplanted. We also think it could be used to curb the body's attacks on its own tissue in autoimmune diseases, for instance type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis," said researcher Dr. Henrietta Nittby in a news release.

The Lund team is now working to target the therapy even further. The next step is to teach immune cells known as dendritic cells to accept specific proteins using the Zebularine treatment. If successful, the researchers believe they could use the drug to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs and stop the body from attacking its own tissue in autoimmune diseases.